The U.S. government is undertaking an effort to promote cloud computing by requiring federal agencies to deliver one IT service in the cloud within 12 months and two more within 18 months. While the initiative is expected to save the government $ 14 billion in its first year, a survey shows there are budgetary and security issues that may make the transition difficult.
Network Computing
Federal Government Makes A Push Into Cloud Computing
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Categories: General.
Five Ways You Can Embrace Earth Day Every Day
Today is Earth Day–the 41st annual day dedicated to raising awareness and inspiring appreciation for the Earth, and to teaching people how to be better custodians of the planet’s resources. Companies of all shapes and sizes consume resources, and impact the environment in some way.
In honor of Earth Day, Emerald Brand products has shared some tips and ideas to help organizations reduce their impact on the environment. Here are five ways you can honor Earth Day and take steps to preserve natural resources in your office.
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Categories: General.
FileMaker Delivers Flexible, Cross-Platform Database
FileMaker doesn’t get much respect as a business-class database–especially among Windows users. However, FileMaker has the unique benefit of working across multiple OS and hardware platforms, and the latest updates make the database even more powerful and flexible.
FileMaker is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Apple, and the general perception is that it fills a niche role as a database just for Mac OS X PCs. I’ll let you in on a secret, though, FileMaker is second only to Microsoft Access as Windows database, and FileMaker sells more on Windows than it does on Mac.
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Categories: General.
Virtela Offers Cloud-Based Solution To Manage Mobile Devices
The increasing use of employees’ personal mobile devices on corporate networks has prompted Virtela Technology Services to introduce a cloud-delivered mobile device management (MDM) service. The service delivers a network connection to smartphones, tablet computers and other devices, monitors usage of voice and data plans and archives text messages. Virtela is offering the cloud service for IT departments that are being asked to accommodate mobile devices, but don’t have the in-house resources to manage and support them.
Network Computing
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Categories: General.
No Happy Ending To The Fable Of ‘Zodiac Island’ And The Cloud Storage Provider
Alas, the tales spun by vendors, analysts and other cloud computing cheerleaders that paint the cloud as an infinitely expandable, reliable and affordable kingdom–where “The winter is forbidden till December/And exits March the second on the dot”–are as fantastical as Camelot itself. WeR1 Production, which produces the syndicated children’s show “Zodiac Island,” is learning this lesson after Binky the sheep and Sonny the tiger went to the bit bucket.
Network Computing
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Categories: General.
Why Samsung Took the Apple Patent Battle International
It is no surprise that Samsung retaliated against Apple’s claims of patent infringement with some patent accusations of its own, but the fact that Samsung chose to file lawsuits internationally against Apple in three different countries seems a bit perplexing. While it may seem like a random move on the part of Samsung to include the world in the patent silliness, there is a method to the madness.
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Categories: General.
Amazon’s Cloud May Seem Magical, But It Isn’t
By now you have heard that Amazon Web Services had a massive disruption yesterday, affecting EC2 instances in their northern Virginia data center. The disruption was/is long lived (Amazon’s dashboard is still showing problems) and certainly blew any claims for an annual uptime of 99.9 percent, which is 8.76 hours downtime per year and likely blew 99.8 percent uptime which is 17.52 hours of downtime. While 99.8 percent sounds good, the fact that some sites have been down the better part of a day has real impact on revenue. The downtime is also bad for those who manage Amazon’s Web Services. It’s bad for those that use Amazons web services. No one likes downtime. But it’s not necessarily a reason to avoid the cloud, and don’t make the mistake of thinking that owning your own infrastructure would have avoided a similar problem.
Network Computing
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Categories: General.
Samsung Countersues Apple in Ongoing Patent Silliness
Are you sitting down? This might come as a complete surprise. Samsung has responded to Apple’s patent infringement claims by…wait for it–countersuing with claims of its own that Apple is infringing on Samsung patents. I know, right? Total shocker.
In response to Apple filing patent infringement claims in the US District Court of Northern California, Samsung has accused Apple of infringing on a total of ten patents in three different countries (Japan, Germany, and South Korea).
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Categories: General.
A Business-Centric Approach to Searching the Web
With millions upon millions upon millions of sites to choose from, it can sometimes be difficult to find relevant results when searching the Web. Factiva, a search engine from Dow Jones focuses on business, and attempts to make business search more productive by weeding out irrelevant consumer sites.
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Categories: General.
Response to Firewall Report Shows Contrasts in Customer Service Philosophy
One of the most important aspects of choosing a hardware or software vendor is the customer service relationship, and the confidence that the vendor will be there to support you when the need arises. The response from vendors to the recent NSS Labs firewall report illustrates the stark differences in how vendors address and resolve issues.
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Categories: General.